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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26326429">Acceptance</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/kenkaosky/pseuds/scuro'>scuro (kenkaosky)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Photographs [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Gundam Wing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 06:14:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,769</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26326429</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/kenkaosky/pseuds/scuro</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Heero clears up some confusion between himself and Duo.<br/>The melodrama continues.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Duo Maxwell/Heero Yuy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Photographs [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1845664</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Acceptance</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Originally posted on LiveJournal: 08.11.07</p><p>Unapologetic abuse of Smashing Pumpkins lyrics.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Warm breath brushing lightly against my cheek wakes me God only knows how many hours later, still curled awkwardly in the arm chair I'd fallen asleep in. The familiar scent of peppermint toothpaste, combined with the trace of gunpowder that seems to follow him wherever he goes, is the only thing that stops me from reaching under the worn cushions and pulling out the sharpened blade we keep there. I blink my eyes open and find him looking down at me with an odd expression flickering across his face. When I rub a hand roughly across my eyes I discover why, the sticky traces of tears leave trails down my face and I suddenly get the urge to sink into the floorboards.</p><p>Heero wordlessly hands me a mug of what smells like green tea, not hot enough to burn my tongue but still warm enough to heat me from the inside out. Just as I like it. I take a cautious sip and it soothes the sore throat my evening of tears has left me with. He gracefully sits down by my feet, not asking me for an explanation, merely offering silent support. Shadows dance across the room in the firelight, an eerily beautiful quality to them, and the music I had turned on to block out the sounds of my own sobs is still playing softly in the background. </p><p>"Nightmare?" I offer up quietly, surprised at the rough quality of my voice. Heero looks at me skeptically, he doesn't expect an explanation but if I'm going to give one he wants the truth. I can't stop the silent sigh that escapes my lips, and he rests his head against my knee in a gesture meant to comfort, worry apparent in his eyes. Almost of its own accord, one of my hands falls from the mug and settles itself in his hair. He looks up at me with a shadow of a smile on his face.</p><p>"Why didn't you tell me?" The words fall off my lips before I have a chance to think about what I'm saying and, when confusion at the accusation and bitterness in my tone joins the worry, I wish I could take them back. Heero has always said I don't have a filter between my brain and my mouth, and right now I have to agree with him.</p><p>"Tell you what?" he asks me with a completely bewildered expression on his face; and he's turned and risen up on his knees so he can face me properly now, though he's still a couple heads shorter from his seat on the floor. I shrug apologetically in response, regretting that I've said anything at all, but now he's got that determined look in his eyes that he gets when he's completely set on figuring something out. He was willing to offer me silent comfort, no strings attached, but now that I've thrown him a bone he wants the rest as well.</p><p>"Duo," he questions softly, his voice a contrast to the resolute expression on his face. "What have I done?" The remorse and confusion in his eyes bites at me, and I feel guilt well up in my chest. Words that normally roll off my tongue in the dozens have left me, and it's all I can do to gesture lamely at the mantelpiece in front of us in response, the firelight dying as the wood burns out. Heero stands and examines the photographs in confusion, before gathering them all in his arms and sitting in front of me once more. He sets them all at my feet, our catalogue of the years laying so innocently before me.</p><p>I gaze at the familiar images with a certain amount of fondness. There's the one of all the pilots after we had finished the exam of general knowledge, allowing us to get our high school diplomas and a job at Preventers. The one that Quatre cleverly snapped while Heero and I were sparring, we didn't even notice that our picture had been taken until the photograph had been developed [much to Heero's dismay]. A few more of the five of us, from the picture of us standing in front of the bridge downtown after hanging out one day to the Preventer's Poster Boys photo shoot that Une had made us pose for. </p><p>My eyes finally find the picture they have both been looking for and dreading at the same time, hidden beneath those two, precious favourites, and I push it away from me and the pile of photographs at my feet. As melodramatic as it sounds, I don't want this picture mixed in with all my happy memories. Heero reaches out and gently lifts the photograph up and stares at it intently, as if trying to read some hidden message that only he can see, before looking up at me again. His eyebrows are wrinkled and I can see that little crease between them that I know means that he is still confused, and he cocks his head at me slightly.</p><p>"Did I do something wrong today, Duo?" he asks me uncertainly, setting the picture from aside and turning to face me completely.</p><p>"No." I finally answer him after thinking about it for a moment. He really hasn't done anything wrong at all, if he wants to be with Relena than who am I to deprive him of his happiness? "I just thought you'd tell me when you finally got together with her. That's all." I finish with a shrug, and all of a sudden the crease between his eyebrows has vanished and I get to watch his eyes widen with sudden understanding.</p><p>"That's what you're upset about?" he asks me, his voice astounded. "You honestly think that Relena and I are 'together'?" He makes quotation marks with his fingers when he says together, and I almost laugh at the uncharacteristic gesture. But then his words hit home, and I realize what he has just said.</p><p>"Well, yeah." I reply, and it seems that just as he has lost the fog of confusion around him I fall into it. "I mean, I always knew you two would date eventually. It's obvious that she's into you, man. And she was holdin' your hand all day today, or at least doin' somethin' like that. Ya know --" I stop myself when I hear the familiar L2 twang slipping into my voice, the accent that I thought that I had lost years ago, even before the first war. Heero sets a calloused hand on my knee, drawing my attention back to him.</p><p>"Relena and I... We're friends. That's all." he explains, the hand resting on my leg squeezing gently to punctuate his point.</p><p>"But," I stammer awkwardly. "But she loves you!" Heero shrugs slightly, a rather uncomfortable expression settling on his face. He lifts his hand from my knee uneasily, looking down at it for a moment before looking back up at me. His blue eyes bore into mine intently.</p><p>"That may be true," he concedes. I open my mouth to speak again, but he holds up a finger in order to ask for my silence. "That may be true. And I love her as well. But it's not the way you think, Duo, not like a lover. She's more like... like a sister to me. I couldn't love her as anything more, because..." His brow wrinkles again, but the expression on his face is anything but confused. This is more of a frustrated look, the look he gets when he's trying to explain something and doesn't know exactly how to put it into words. He bites his lip agitatedly and glances around the room, as if trying to find something to aid him in his explanation. After a few moments he seems to find it, judging by the relieved expression that flashes across his features and the way he urgently grabs my hand and pulls me to my feet.</p><p>He doesn't release my hand as he leads me across the room, and I like the way his fingers feel twined through my own, a reassuring and steady pressure. It is almost a disappointment when we finally reach his destination, the kitchen window, and his hand slides out of mine. He gestures outside, and I oblige and look out at the rain falling in sheets onto the pavement four stories below.</p><p>"That rain falls on everyone." He begins, pointing out a couple standing together under a worn umbrella a few yards away from the apartment complex. I turn back to look at him as he stares silently down at the street below us, his damn uncontrollable hair hiding his eyes and his fingers clenched so hard on the window sill that the knuckles have turned white.</p><p>"And I," Heero finally breathes, turning to look back at me with an unreadable expression in his eyes. "I just want to be the one to walk with you. Between the raindrops." And the he's leaning towards me and I watch in disbelief as his eyes fall closed, even as he pauses a centimeter away from my lips. Warm breath brushes across them as if in invitation, and I shudder before leaning in the rest of the way to brush my lips against his just as gently. </p><p>"Heero," his name falls from my lips almost silently, and that's all it takes for him to twine his arms around my waist and kiss me again. His lips taste smoky and sweet on my tongue, like I've always prayed for and never imagined all at once. I can't stop my hands from weaving through his hair in an effort to pull him closer to me and I can feel one of his arms tighten around my waist and the other slides slowly up the back of my shirt. This kiss we're sharing isn't by any stretch of the imagination gentle, but it doesn't need to be. It's hungry, and it's demanding, and it's more than I ever dreamed of, but most of all it's just simply <em>Heero</em>. </p><p>When we finally pull away, Heero looks at me out of expectant, and surprisingly nervous, blue eyes. His tongue flicks out across the lips that I have just finished exploring so eagerly, and it takes all of my will-power to keep me from leaning back in and having another taste. I grin at him and nod, untangling my fingers from his hair and lacing them around his neck instead, pulling him towards me to whisper in his ear before submitting to his intoxicating kisses once more.</p><p>"Yeah, I'll walk with you."</p>
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